At The Lemelson Foundation, we seek to foster inventions that will have social impact and improve lives. But our support for early-stage innovation could not succeed without a trusted network of grantees and partners.
Impact evaluations are an important tool for learning about effective solutions to social problems, but they are a good investment only in the right circumstances.
Will the Open Philanthropy Project’s experiment in effective altruism validate the cause or demonstrate its hubris? Open access to this article is made possible by an underwriter.
Better use of evidence and developments in evaluation practice can shift the power dynamic between funders, service-delivering organizations, and service users.
A new, and easier, scientific approach to determining the quality of evidence can help the social sector better assess—and therefore better address—social problems.
Funders are calling for more program evaluation, but nonprofits are often collecting dubious data, at great cost to themselves and ultimately to the people they serve.
With an understanding of these 10 funding models, nonprofit leaders can use the for-profit world's valuable practice of engaging in succinct and clear conversations about long-term financial strategy.
Our understanding of community can help funders and evaluators identify, understand, and strengthen the communities they work with.
Impact evaluations are an important tool for learning about effective solutions to social problems, but they are a good investment only in the right circumstances.
The superficially enticing “logic” of effective altruism ultimately leads to a moralistic, hyper-rationalistic, top-down approach to philanthropy that can kill the very altruistic spirit it claims to foster.
